


Hopeless Love

by willneverbeordinary



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I'm Sorry, Mutual Pining, Unresolved Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 05:39:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16633985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willneverbeordinary/pseuds/willneverbeordinary
Summary: After dinner, and after a few glasses, Link finds himself outside with Rhett, looking at a starless city sky.





	Hopeless Love

“You know I love you,” Rhett says and fumbling fingers are clutching at Link's t-shirt sleeve.

Link turns his head. Looks at Rhett lying next to him. “I know.”

Rhett smiles. Alcohol makes his fingers slip and then he has moved them to traces patterns on Link's shoulder. Link pats his hand. Holds it before it starts to stray.

“R’nt you gonna say it back?” Rhett rolls over onto his side, gaze lost in travelling over Link's face.

“Love you, Rhett.”

The smile he gets is wide. He smiles back gently.

“We should go inside,” he suggests.

“No.” Rhett drags the 'o’ out a little. Rolls onto his back again. “M’ comfortable out here.”

“Your back will kill you tomorrow.”

“Who cares about tomorrow.”

Link shakes his head and lies back down on the deck. He glances over at Rhett. Moves their hands. Places them over his heart. Ridiculous declarations of who it beats for tumbles through his mind. He doesn't say any of it.

Rhett reaches out, fumbles for Link's other hand and tugs it to rest on his chest.

“I think mine beats a little harder.” It's mumbled. Not slurred, not quite. Almost. Heavy with something, definitely.

Link swallows. His heart jumps. “Maybe.”

The night is warm. He's warm inside, too. There has to be a melting point for bones. A point where they go soft and everything gets a little fuzzy and easy and he can lie there, next to Rhett, and his bones don't feel as if they are connected by coils, a hair's breadth away from springing apart at any moment.

“I really do love you,” Link says after a while. He has left his hand on Rhett’s chest. Rhett’s hand has slipped away and he is idly brushing his fingers against Link's arm.

Rhett doesn't respond immediately. Doesn't look over. But Link feels how Rhett’s heartbeat quickens under his palm.

“It should have been you and me. Why wasn't it you and me?” Rhett is staring at the sky. His voice is thin.

Link squeezes his eyes shut for a second. Takes a breath. “Don't know.”

“I'm not– I don't–”

“Don't regret anything?” Link turns onto his side, onto a shoulder that instantly protests. He studies Rhett’s profile as Rhett keeps gazing at the starless city sky.

Rhett furrows his brow. “I don't think there are more universes out there. Just the one– this one– and, so, everything could only happen the way it did.”

Something squeezes Link's heart. A diffuse kind of pain blooms inside his chest.

“Hey, what? You loved talking about multiverses.”

Rhett sighs. Heavily. A sound almost like something dying, like his lungs are struggling to work.

“Dunno. Can't stand the, you know, thought of, like, that it could have been– that I could have had– we could have been– could've happened. Because I-I just. Keep thinking. What did I do wr– what should I have done differently?”

“Okay.”

Rhett shakes his head. Slowly turning it from side to side. Another sigh. Like he's running out of oxygen. Suffocating.

“Don't matter, couldn't have changed a thing.” Rhett’s voice is tense. “No multiverse, no time travel, no freaking, butterfly effects, whatever– Nothing. Just. This. And it was never gonna be different.”

“Is this so bad?”

Rhett turns to look at him at that. Eyes wet. Lackluster and fragile.

“Yeah. Don't answer that.” He moves his hand, finds Rhett’s and struggle with clumsy, alcohol-uncoordinated fingers until he can hold it.

Rhett makes a small sound. Something tired and heavy and sad. Link closes his eyes. The sky above lacks stars; sickly yellow in broad oil paint strokes hiding them from view. Link paints them in his mind instead.

“D'you ever think about– that you gave me a star for my birthday? You can't see it but I– I think about it. Sometimes. But I don't know where it is.”

“Linkstar.” There is a smile in Rhett's voice. “Southern sky. Vela constellation. It was part of the ship Argo, it's the sail of the ship, and, but it was divided into three constellations.”

“Huh “

Rhett's fingers flex then squeeze. “Yeah, it was too big and, so they split it into three parts.”

Link hums. Rubs his thumb against Rhett's. “You gave me a freaking star. On camera.”

There's a laugh from Rhett and it trickles through Link's ribs and settles in his chest and he smiles.

“Yea.”

“So, do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Ever think about it?” He opens his eyes and looks at Rhett.

“Not always. A lot, when I do think about it. I gave you a freaking star.”

Link smiles again. “Yeah, you did.”

Rhett turns his head and the stars and constellations Link had been painting in his mind are right there, in those eyes looking into his. A universe in a pair of eyes. Memories like pinpricks of light, strewn across a lifetime together.

“How do you even remember all that– that about my star? It was what? Six years ago?”

Rhett rolls over, onto his side, and Link shifts too. Tumbling over, a little uncoordinated, ignoring the bite of pain in his shoulder, and ending up almost nose to nose with Rhett. When Rhett's gaze drops to his lips, Link smiles. Rhett's eyes flick up again and Link looks away, unable to stop smiling right then.

“Four years.” His breath hits Link's face in a soft huff

“I don't know man, I just remember stuff.”

Link breathes in. There's a hint of chlorine in the air from the pool. The heat and dust of southern California summer. The too-sweet of the alcohol in Rhett's exhales breathed almost against his lips. He takes another deep breath through his nose and moves his hand up Rhett's arm. Rhett blinks slowly. Then his palm presses against Link's waist and Link's next breath comes out shaky.

“You gave me a star and I gave you redwood trees. It's gonna be there long after we're gone.”

“Your star could already be dead.”

“Well. The light will be there, anyway.”

Rhett hums.

There's a wave that moves through Link's chest with the beat of his heart and it's spills over his lips in quiet, little words. “Is it a weird thing to say ‘you have stars in your eyes’?”

Rhett mouths a ‘what’ and Link gulps down a laugh that wants to bubble up where usually annoyance might spill over.

“Dunno,” Rhett mumbles. He plays with the hair at Link's nape now and Link closes his eyes. “It sounds romantic or sumthin’.”

“Hm.”

“Why?”

“Nothing.” Link drags his hand down Rhett's arm and back up. Grasps at his shoulder.

Rhett breathes out hard against Link's lips. His knees bump into Link's legs. He moved his hand from Link's nape and Link shivers as Rhett brushes the hem of his t-shirt up half an inch and he sneaks his finger underneath the fabric. Moves slowly, slowly, up Link's side. Thumbs his ribs and Link lets out a quiet gasp of laughter.

“Tickles,” he mumbles, eyes still closed and hand still at Rhett's shoulder. He pulls. Just a little. And Rhett settles against him with a tiny noise.

“We need to get back.” He moves his hand to the nape of Rhett's neck and scratches his hair. Slow movements.

Rhett's breath hits his lips in quicker, little almost-gasps. The warmth that is laced through his ribs and wrapped around his bones makes it too easy to stay right where he is instead of going back inside to his wife. He shifts his legs and then they're tangled up together. Rhett's hand is at the small of his back, then, pressing insistently.

Link opens his eyes a little. “We should go back inside. They'll come looking.”

Rhett doesn't reply. He breathes shaky, hard breaths and shifts his hips minutely. Eyes shut tightly. Brow furrowed. Link brushes his lips against his cheek. Breathes out against his skin in a sigh.

“Rhett.”

Rhett moves his hand to Link's upper back. Pulling Link in and pressing closer all at the same time until Link is sure he has reached that melting point because he settles into the embrace bonelessly for a moment.

“C'mon, buddy. Let's– let's get us both off the ground. We're old, we're gonna be hurtin’ tomorrow.” He pulls back. Puts his hand square against Rhett's chest and pushes. “C'mon, now.”

Rhett rolls onto him instead. Pressing Link down against the deck and going lax on top of him.

“Can't m'dead,” Rhett breathes against his neck. His lips brush Link's skin and leave goosebumps in their wake.

Link looks up at the starless sky again. Rhett is breathing against his neck. Their heartbeats melt with the heat and meld into one. Slowly, he wraps his arms around Rhett.

He struggles to breath under Rhett's weight. He holds on a little tighter.

“You're hopeless,” he huffs.

Rhett sighs, then, and rolls off him. Link chews on the inside of his cheek. Rhett is on his back again, gaze far, far away. Lost somewhere in the murk above them.

“It's all hopeless,” Rhett says then, and something falls apart with every syllable. Shatters and breaks. “M'going back inside.”

Rhett sits up. Gets to his feet slowly. A little wobbly. A little stiff. His back is towards Link and he speaks over his shoulder. “Are you coming with me?”

Link sits. Looks at Rhett's back. He gets to his feet with a sigh. Walks over to Rhett. When he is next to him, he claps Rhett's shoulder. Rhett looks at him from the corner of his eye. He's tense.

Link squeezes Rhett's shoulder. "Always, brother.”

There's a hint of a smile on Rhett's lips. It's faint and it fades quickly.

They walk back inside together in silence.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really am sorry about this one. Feel free to yell at me in the comments.


End file.
